In particular, the invention relates to a device comprising a tank of fluid to be sprayed, a spray pump mounted on said tank, and an actuator head including automatic actuation means for actuating the pump. Document EP-A-0 401 060 discloses such a device. Because the actuator head is expensive, the device must be rechargeable, which means that the tank of fluid and the pump which is fixed thereon must be disassembled in order to refill the device. Although it is possible to replace both the empty tank and its pump simultaneously with a full tank having another pump mounted thereon, that adds the price of a new pump to the price of each refill, even though the pump mounted on the empty tank could still be used. For example, with tanks of standard size (e.g. 200 ml) and with an actuator head that actuates the pump 40 times per second, a conventional piston spray pump of the type normally actuated by hand and made of molded plastic can be used for emptying at least ten tanks. Replacing the pump each time the tank is replaced thus constitutes a pointless expense that considerably increases the cost of using the device.
An object of the present invention is thus to propose a device of the type mentioned above in which the spray pump can be reused on several successive tanks, while guaranteeing good reliability of operation, and without presenting the user with difficulties when disassembling the pump from an empty tank and reassembling it on a full tank.
In particular, when the pump is a piston type pump, the quantity of fluid expelled on each actuation depends on the stroke of the piston, and it may be small. Since the automatic pump actuator means include an actuator member which presses on the pushbutton of the pump in order to actuate the pump and which moves between a predetermined high position and a predetermined low position, another object of the invention is for the pump to be axially positioned with great accuracy relative to the head. For example, in a device that has been tested experimentally and in which the pump is actuated at 40 Hz, the stroke of the piston is about 2.47 mm.